Speeches by McFadden.

“I was very fortunate to be at the President’s speech yesterday. I have been in Parliament a long time, as you know, Mr Chairman, and I think I have been to two or three or those kinds of addresses. I thought he made an excellent, wide-ranging speech, and this visit is an important moment for the country. I heard what h…”

“Yes, he did, and that reflects a long-held French view about strategic autonomy. I think we view this slightly differently, based on the agreement that we had. Certainly, in the national security strategy, which we published a week or two ago, we talk about deep capability and about strength in depth in terms of what w…”

“I will break that down a little bit. The investment needs of the country are there to see. It has been one of the policies of the Government to try to change the investment trajectory from the one that we inherited. Starting with public investment, that was all set out by the Chancellor at the spending review, with the…”

“I saw those comments. Of course, the United States—I think “muscular” was the word used—”

“It is a very good question. That happened before the regime was in place. That is not to say that the regime is foolproof. I am not here to say that the regime is foolproof, but it has been put in place since then. Your question of timing is a good one, because it raises the obvious issue of having a new regime, which …”

“As the Chair hinted, we will always be a bit reluctant to discuss individual cases, for good legal reasons. The Act itself allows us to draw on the expertise across Government to make these judgments. It is always a balance between economic growth and security. We could, for example, take such a view of security that w…”

“We are actor agnostic in the way that we do this. Other countries can take a particular attitude towards another country. As I said in my answer a few moments ago, in general, I think being a good home for foreign investment is in the UK national interest, but there will be occasions when we will say no to that because…”

“Partly, there is a legal regime. The NSIA, of course, is the foundation of that, and I am the decision maker for that. In specific investment in the sectors affected. As you probably know, there are 17 notifiable acquisition regulations—NARs, as they are called. Anything under that will be notified, looked at and consi…”

“Look, we take into account resilience, not just now but in the future. You should have a view of capability now, but also in the future too, and you should try to think about those dimensions when making such a decision. That is why stock and flow is important. A single investment might not make much difference, but 20…”

“Well, I am appearing before Matt and his Committee on Monday, and I look forward to continuing a number of these discussions.”

“There are provisions in the Act about information sharing, and I am as bound by them as anyone else.”

“Let me mention two that I have announced recently. In September, we will fully test the national alert system—the nationwide messaging system to mobile phones. At about 3 o’clock on Sunday 7 September, a message sent by us will make a very loud noise and will interrupt many Sunday roasts, but I think that is a really i…”

“A national test was done a couple of years ago. This is the second national test. We have also used it in real life, as it were, on a few occasions with storms during the winter. We did it with a storm in Scotland and a storm that affected south Wales and south-west England. You can never prove a counterfactual and say…”

“The national risk register has them all set out, so we think through how we would respond to them all. As to whether we have done a particular exercise, perhaps not if you pick out a particular two, but the whole thing is set out in the national risk register.”

“If you want a list of things to keep you awake at night—”

“If you want a list of things to keep you awake at night, it is not a bad place to start. Could I say that we have covered everything, or that there are risks we have not thought of? I do not think anyone could say that 100%.”

“We try to prepare for a number of scenarios and think them through. I have taken part in scenario exercises about particular geopolitical situations where we say, “If this happened, what would we do? Where do we think the pressures would be? What would happen to oil prices? What would happen to food prices?” We do go t…”

“Not specifically with Pool Re, but I think pooling risk is an interesting concept. I am reluctant to wade into the insurance market, and companies—at least large companies—may have their own cyber-insurance and insure against these risks. I think it is an interesting question, and I very much welcome the Committee look…”

“We have talked a lot about cyber today. If you look at the experience of the Russia-Ukraine war, and the use of technology on that battlefield now compared with when the war started a few years ago, you will see enormous change. I think NATO has looked at this and learned from it. Just as we have been talking about eco…”

“I was asked about this a number of times yesterday when I made the statement on resilience, and I think perhaps this discussion has been more normal in other countries than it has been here. For example, the advice about what to do in an emergency, what kind of supplies you need to keep in your house and so on, feels p…”